Still Enjoying the Ride

August 17, 2009 1:11 PM China time

Oh, so many cute moments in the last week! With each picture being worth a thousand words, I’ll let the slide show be most of the post. But here are a few comments.

The pedal boat ride was in Zhengzhou. I took the kids out for a walk to give Christi a break. We came across a beautiful park with a lake. The park was several blocks wide and long. After the boat ride, we wandered around. This was also where the birds were. (By the way, Graci informed me that they were good eating.) By the time we started to head home, it was getting dark. We finally made it out to a street, and I was completely lost. It was after dark, and here I am in China with three little kids. I knew I couldn’t be too far from the hotel, but I wasn’t sure which way to go. I had brought along our hotel key card specifically for this contingency. So I hailed a cab. I showed the driver the hotel key, but it was clear that without glasses, there was no way this guy could read the name of the hotel on it. Makes you wonder how much he sees as he’s driving his taxi?!? The second driver was a woman and she took pity on my urchins and me. She drove us back to the hotel-it took about 45 seconds (sheepish grin on my face). I tipped her wellJ

Xan-man loves to swim! The hotel in Zhengzhou required swim caps for all swimmers, and Xander looked particularly cute in his. He’s like a little fish, and keeps begging to go swimming here in Guangzhou, but we’ve been instructed to wait until after his TB test is read. That’s this afternoon, thank goodness!

Graci has been so cute with Xander. She is very anti-kissing in general, but for some reason, she has no hesitation kissing X-man. She loves to carry him around, take care of him, help him when he needs something, etc. She’s being a great big sister. It’s fun to see her be so nurturing.

Jesi has fixed several “tea parties” for us. This is a re-creation of the “tea parties” fixed for her by her Grandma Rose. They generally included such dainties as stale fruit loops, humitidy-sogged-crackers, and this nasty/funky jello-chunky-drink stuff. (To clarify, Grandma Rose’s tea parties have much more delectable items on the menu.) Jesi likes to stand by the side of the table, directing our eating and ensuring that we consume everything that has been served to us. (Fortunately, she is easily distracted, and some of the stuff ends up in the garbage.)

The matching shirts have been around since Taylor and Parker were about 2 and 3. There are actually two of the smaller sized shirts. The older boys LOVED to wear them with Dad. Xander was pretty excited, too.

Not too much longer ‘til we come home! We’re looking forward to some normalcy-if you can call anything about our family normal:)

Jeremy